Introduction: This
excerpt is from discussion of the second of seven esoteric stanzas
passed on by Alice A. Bailey concerning the respective seven paths
leading to the way
of higher evolution, which take the master who undergoes high
spiritual initiation into more advanced stages of evolution.

Path
II. The Path of Magnetic Work.

The attributes
which the adept on this path has to possess prior to taking the needed
training for the seventh cosmic method of approach
is responsiveness to heat and a knowledge of rhythm. These words
will, of course, mean nothing to the uninitiated but to some it will
convey
much and when it is noted that there will be found coupled with these
two attributes an ability to "see the dancing of the particles of heat
and the waves of warm vibration" (as it is called in an old manual which
those in training for this path employ) it will be apparent that the
effects of fire and the laws of fiery energy and vibration are here dealt
with. Those sons of men who at this time search for the "heat of
the love nature" of the human unit and who add to that search a cultivation
of a vivid imagination and an intense power to visualise are laying a
groundwork upon which this later knowledge may be superimposed. But this
is not the easy thing it sounds, for it involves an identification at
present impossible to the majority, and a power to realise the nature
of that which is visualised which negates the idea of duality,—that which
visualises and that which is visualised.

The method employed
can only be expressed as the "entering of the burning ground." The
power to do this is gained through passing through three
preliminary burning-grounds, as is easily to be seen:

1. The burning-ground which lies between the Hall of Ignorance and the
Hall of Learning. This is the destructive fire which man creates under
the working of the Law of Karma.

2. The burning-ground of the dead personality which lies between the
Hall of Learning and the Hall of Wisdom. It is found upon the shores
of the river of life and has to be passed prior to the third Initiation.

3. The burning-ground
which is found when a man is ready to pass out of the Hall of Wisdom
as a full adept. It is a triple burning-ground and is found "upon
the mountain top, being kept alive and flaming by all the winds of
heaven." It is responsible for the destruction of the egoic or causal
body.

The third
produces a spiritual alchemicalisation, whereas the other two produced
results in the objective or form side and the subjective or consciousnessness
aspect of his triple nature. When these three burning grounds are passed
then the adept is prepared for another and fiercer experience.

The hierarchies
connected with this Path are mainly the third and fourth. Only the
human units can pass onto these two paths. The deva hierarchies of
the third order have already passed upon them, and it is their previous
work which enables man to do so. This is a great mystery and more must
not be reavealed about it. The group of the Silent Watchers of all
degrees are closely connected with this second cosmic path. All of
Them are Lords of Sacrifice, and are animated solely by love, and all
have therefore passed through the sacrificial burning grounds.

It is only
possible to give the most elementary of the exoteric symbols. It takes
the form of a funeral pyre in full conflagration, and with four
flaming torches one at each corner. From the centre of the pyre a fivefold
star mounts like a rocket towards a flaming sun of a predominantly rosy
hue.

Attributes
- Responsiveness to heat and knowledge of rhythm.

Source
- An unknown constellation via Gemini.

Method
- The entering of the burning-ground.

Hierarchy
- The third and fourth.

Symbol
- A funeral pyre, four torches, and a fivefold star mounting towards
the sun.